Happy Leap Day!

Did you know that only 6 hours of today are actually today? It’s true! The other 18 hours are left over from the last 3 years and are pasted on to this year to make a whole day. That’s because years are really 365 days and 6 hours long, but a 6-hour day is just not workable. Why, the loss of sleep alone would be a source of catastrophic crankiness. And when would one shop? No, a 6-hour day is right out. This was wisely understood back in 45 BC by Julius Caesar who, having been off making love eyes at Cleopatra in Egypt, returned to Rome to find that the Senators had moved the Spring Equinox to winter. In order to remedy this extreme silliness, he had to add 2 whole months to the end of that year. Of course, while he was fiddling around with the calendar, which in those days had only 355 days, he decided he’d make some other changes. For instance, on the advice of Cleopatra’s astrologers, he added a couple of days to each of the 12 months to follow the solar calendar and make all the holidays fall in the same season every year. Then, every 4th year an extra day was tacked on to the last month of the year, which in those days was February. This was all well and good, but Caesar didn’t stop there. In my estimation, he should have been less concerned with changing the calendar and more with casting a wary eye toward Egypt where Marc Anthony and Cleopatra were playing fast and loose with each other. Instead, he changed the name of the 5th month, Quintilis, to Julius (now known as July) after himself. The Senators were so peeved about this final rather self-serving calendar change that shortly thereafter came the whole Ides of March and “Et tu, Brute” thing. Poor Julius. He was succeeded by his son Augustus, who in a fit of family resemblance named the 6th month, Sextilis, after himself. I wonder which 6 of today’s hours are actually today. For the other 18, I plan to nap.